The present invention relates to hand tools, and in particular to an adaptor for use with pliers or multipurpose hand tools to turn screwdriver bits, small socket wrenches, and the like.
It is well known to use a single handle to drive a selected one of a set of screwdriver bits or wrenches of various sizes, to save the cost of having several handles. It is also often desirable thus to minimize the weight and number of tools used or carried. Adaptors intended to be gripped by drill chucks are also available to receive such bits. Some multipurpose hand tools previously available have also included drive members for driving small socket wrenches. Some of these drives, while useful, add undesirably to the size of the multipurpose tools of which they are part, making the multipurpose tools less convenient to carry.
Folding multipurpose tools are disclosed, for example, in Leatherman U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,238,862, and 4,888,869. Many generally similar tools are available.
Most such multipurpose tools do not include more than two or three sizes of straight screwdriver blades and one or two sizes of Phillips screwdrivers. Such multipurpose tools do not usually include any socket wrench drives, and thus they are not readily useful to drive many of the various different types or sizes of screwdriver bits and socket wrenches available. However, it would be advantageous to be able to drive such screwdriver bits, socket wrenches or other small tools using an available multipurpose tool as a drive handle. This would be particularly advantageous to avoid carrying several special drive handles where it is important to minimize the weight of tools carried, as in bicycle touring.
Depending on the space available around a screw, bolt, or nut it may be necessary or desirable for a socket or screwdriver to be adjustable optionally to be aligned with a handle or to extend at an angle to one side. While some adaptors have been available previously to enable screwdrivers or small socket wrenches to be driven by a folding multipurpose tool, these arrangements have not been strong enough, or have been limited to axially aligned engagement with a screwdriver included in a multipurpose tool, or have been otherwise limited in their usefulness.
What is needed, then, is a suitably strong adaptor by which various small tool bits, screwdrivers, or sockets can be driven, using another hand tool as a handle for the adaptor, and with which such tool bits can be aligned at selected angles with respect to the hand tool. Preferably, such an adaptor could be used with multipurpose tools such as those which are already well known and widely available and would be small enough to be carried conveniently.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings of the prior art and supplies an answer to the need for a small and easily used, but strong, adaptor to enable various tool bits to be driven by a single hand tool. As used herein a tool bit means a screwdriver bit or a small wrench socket, or a similar tool which may be one of a set of such tools of several sizes, all of which can be driven in rotation when mated with a suitable drive member. An adaptor according to the present invention includes a drive plate having a driven end and a driving end, with a tool bit-engaging member attached to the drive plate near its driving end. A pair of generally parallel arms are included at the driven end of the drive plate and are available to engage or be engaged by a hand tool which is to be used as a handle for the adaptor.
In one embodiment of the present invention the tool bit-engaging member includes a hexagonal socket of an appropriate size for receiving the shanks of interchangeable screwdriver bits and other tool bits of the same size.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the tool bit-engaging member is able to pivot with respect to the drive plate, between an in-line orientation and an offset or angled position.
Another aspect of the invention is a locking mechanism provided to hold the tool bit-engaging member in an in-line orientation or in a selected angled orientation with respect to the drive plate when the adaptor is being used. In one such locking mechanism a spring-loaded tooth engages a selected notch on the drive plate, while a collar surrounding the body of the tool bit-engaging member keeps the tooth aligned and is useful to disengage the tooth from a notch.
Preferably, the driven end of the drive plate includes a projection arranged to engage a handle of a multipurpose tool to keep the adaptor securely mated with the multipurpose tool.
In one embodiment of the invention, the parallel arms defined on the driven end of the adaptor drive plate are arranged to fit snugly along opposite sides of a pair of jaws of a multipurpose tool with which the adaptor is mated.
A feature of one embodiment of the invention is a stiffener portion of the drive plate that increases the amount of torque that can be transmitted to a tool bit in an offset or angled position.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.